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Thursday, April 23, 2015

Dr Mahathir’s self-fulfilling prophecy

By SSK

Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has ‘predicted’ that Barisan Nasional will lose the next general election if Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak is not removed and replaced. This can result in a self-fulfilling prophecy in the event people do not vote Barisan Nasional because of what Dr Mahathir said.

Therefore if this does happen Dr Mahathir has to share the blame. He is the one spreading panic with his doomsday talk.

Dr Mahathir also said he doubts Malaysia will become a developed nation by 2020 and added that a high per capita income did not equal development. He added that development was not just about achieving a high gross domestic product (GDP) or per capita income. “This alone doesn’t mean that we are developed,” he said.

Dr Mahathir admitted that it was an oversight on his part to not properly define the meaning of a developed nation when he first launched Vision 2020. “Malaysia needs to make our own mould of what a developed nation is, not just copy what another country is doing,” he said.

Dr Mahathir then defined a developed nation as a nation that has the industrial capability to produce the latest technological products, having a strong representation of educated people, and fully understanding the idea of democracy.

In the first place, Vision 2020 was merely an aspiration that did not have any details. Most people did not even understand what Vision 2020 meant but were too afraid to ask or did not want to appear stupid for asking. So it is understandable it is not going to succeed mainly because it was too vague, just like the Look East Policy, which many also did not understand what it meant.

Dr Mahathir is trying to shift the blame for the failure of Vision 2020 to someone else when the failure of Vision 2020 is actually because it was not realistic and too idealistic.

What does he mean when he says, “Malaysia needs to make our own mould of what a developed nation is, not just copy what another country is doing”? Can he explain the details? This is the problem with rhetoric and slogans that do not give us any details of how it is supposed to work.